Whaaaat???

May 20, 2013 | Filed under Eric Mandee Wedding

Wow – time is flying! Can’t believe it’s only 4 months until we travel to Savannah and get married!! Invitations are being printed and we can’t wait to get them in the mail. We will reveal them here after the wedding.

By the way, if you guys are on Instagram or Twitter, use the hashtag #MandeeAndEric so we can see what you post when you come to the wedding or reception!

The weather in Knoxville is finally starting to seem like spring. It’s been an unusually chilly, rainy spring this year. Our rainfall is over a foot more than normal. All we need are some monkeys and an gekko and we’d look like a rainforest.

OK, so not a lot new to report since a lot of what we are doing is behind-the-scenes, super-secret wedding stuff. Stay tuned for a post soon on one of the season’s most trendy vegetables that most of us in East Tennessee call a stinky weed.

Springtime in Knoxville!

April 23, 2013 | Filed under Eric Food Mandee Travel Wedding

I know, I know it’s been a while since I have blogged. I don’t have a very good excuse either! A lot has gone on since my last one so here’s a recap:

I got a job! Pretty much my dream job as well.

I passed my boards! That was a really hard feat but the worst parts were: a. going to take it in the middle of an ice storm and b. waiting a whole week for my results!

The husband-elect and I are embarking on one culinary adventure after another in our home and abroad. We’ve had a couple of dinner parties with friends in which we have broadened the horizons of our guests, then we have had our own minds blown in the most unlikely places such as Chattanooga, TN! St. John’s Meeting Place is an amazing spot there.

Our most recent adventures include that trip to Chattanooga to see Elton John and then to Savannah to finalize some wedding plans. Both trips were a lot of fun but they were both pretty action packed. The husband-elect and I are looking forward to a beach-do nothing vacation soon.

In more recent developments:

We have started a larger garden this year and E made me a couple of raised beds in which to grow our crops! We have radishes, carrots, sweet and hot peppers, brussel sprouts, te you, a host of herbs, tomatoes and lettuces. It’s going to be awesome! I hope we can keep the mice away this year so we can share this stuff with our peeps!

2 weekends ago was an especially exciting one as I went shopping for my wedding dress! I went down to Atlanta for the weekend to be with my mom, sis, and two of my very best friends. It also happened to be my sister’s birthday weekend so there was a lot of celebrating to do! I got to see my adorable niece whom I haven’t seen since Christmas and she has grown so much! She’s so adorable and spent all day Saturday with us as I tried on dress after dress looking for something that matched my unique personality. We didn’t have any luck Saturday but when Sunday came around I decided to give David’s Bridal a shot. We walked into the store, started looking at dresses, and there she was! The most perfect dress that I never thought I would fall in live with. Now, they did not have my size in the color I wanted but we clipped it to another one in a different color and I didn’t want to take it off! Needless to say, my mom and the rest of the crew loved it as well. I can’t wait to wear it in September!

Finally, this past weekend E and I hosted a birthday pizza party for his sister and cousin. This was not your ordinary pizza party though. We had mushroom crostini and arancini as the apps, a shaved asparagus and carrot salad, three different pizzas (mozzarella and olive oil, pesto chicken, and pepperoni with banana peppers), and we finished with a blood orange olive oil gelato, vanilla poppyseed cake with chocolate and a berry sauce. Everyone was well fed and we all had a lovely time. We even took advantage of the awesome weather and sat out by the fire for a while. It was a successful night!

I think that’s it for now! Thanks for reading and we will update again soon!

-M

Planning for Savannah?

April 1, 2013 | Filed under Destination Entertainment Food Wedding

Here’s some places to look if you’re planning a trip to Savannah soon:

Design Sponge City Guide

Fried Green Savannah

Twitter:
Eat It. Like It
Well Fed Savannah
The Sparetime
Savannah Riverfront

Savannah Weekend

April 1, 2013 | Filed under Wedding

After celebrating M’s 33rd birthday on Wednesday (can you BELIEVE she’s that old… geez!), we headed out Thursday to finalize our Savannah plans. (OK, maybe it was just an excuse to take a weekend to one of our favorite places. It was still on the chilly side when we got there so it was definitely sweater weather the first day. We were really pleased with the Westin Hotel & Resort. 4⭐ is the way to go. And the river ferry was great. We basically had a car-free weekend much to my liking.

We hopped the ferry across and our first stop (after a beer…open containers are allowed and almost manditory ) was the site of the ‘happening’, Madison Square. That’s where it all goes down folks. We were scheduled to meet with our planner while in town. Unfortunately, she was still recovering from pneumonia so we weren’t able to connect. That was a bit of a disappointment, but these things happen. We wandered around town a bit checking to see if other hotel options might work, but we’re pretty happy with what we’ve chosen. We were put-off by the attitude of the group-bookings at the Hilton Desoto. It was almost like she didn’t even want us to stay there. Luckily, we were handed off to another lady before I went Little Eric Redass on her. Our main stop of the day was a tasting at Form. First, off, it’s a little, um, rustic. But hey we aren’t exactly Koi type people anyway. We love locals. The guys were SO friendly and accommodating. We had the best meal of our entire stay there and can not wait to share what we decided on for the 5-course dinner with wine pairing. Let’s just say it has Southern roots, but it’s not going to be showing up on any other menu in the South! We had planned to meet with two cake vendors the following day, but were so blown away by the dessert we were served at Form, we immediately decided to cancel those appointments and go with exactly what they served us. WOW oh WOW!!. I’ve attached a pict of some of the goodies we had (these aren’t going to be on the final menu, but are great examples).

So after canceling our cake appointments and our planner being under the weather, it left us with a lot more free time than we had expected. We were able to get to the beach…although it was about 15° colder and very windy there so we didn’t last long. We were able to enjoy a bottle of wine that Form sent along for us to try…did I mention how accommodating these guys were? Saturday was spectacular. 76° and perfect in the Historic District. And on Sunday we said goodbye to Savannah. We will see it again in Sept with our family and friends.

Goodbye Savannah!

Heading into the final stretch!!

February 27, 2013 | Filed under Entertainment Eric Travel Wedding

Wow – it’s just 7 months!! Almost everything is done (Oh except for our attire!). We have a short trip to Savannah scheduled for the end of next month to put the final touches on a few things. Hopefully Winter will be finished by then. It’s crazy here in TN… storms, wind, snow, spring-like 60° weather, floods… we’ve had it all this winter. But more and more days are warm… I know this because I get more and more days the top can go down on the convertible. You notice these things a lot more when you drive one.

So what’s been happening these last few months? Well, we got our Save the Date cards sent out. So those have links with relevant information like places to stay, agendas, etc. We have a caterer selected and I think we know where our dinner in Savannah will be held. We have a few surprises for the folks attending the ceremony with us. And so far, only a couple headaches have came up. But we’ve dealt with those the best we could. Remember folks, this is OUR wedding, not YOURS. We went to Nashville for a few days and saw the incredible William Shatner. He has a one-man show that he’s taken on the road. It’s basically an autobiographical stand-up. The man is amazing. He didn’t miss a beat during the whole show. So if he comes to your city, be sure to check him out. We had some amazing food at Midtown Cafe while we were there. Carlos Mencia was in Knoxville and we attended his hilarious (but too lengthy) show.

Mandee is well into her new career and loving it. She gets to stick needles into people and who wouldn’t like that! Soon she will get to cut people too. I envy her that!

On the agenda for the next month or so as I mentioned a trip to Savannah and also a few days in Chattanooga to attend Elton John’s concert there (If you’re counting, that’s 26 for me, 3 for Mandee).

Until next time. My best,
Eric

Nearing the End

December 14, 2012 | Filed under Career Engagement Eric Life Mandee Wedding

Were the Mayan’s Right?

This is not the normal ‘End of the year’ post… after all, if you listen to the people that think the Mayan’s meant something by ending their calendar one week from now, you’d think it’s the end of everything! No, there’s a lot of endings in addition to the end of the year. This marks the end of M’s long journey to become a Physician Assistant. Two years ago, just before we met, M had started school. It can only be called an ordeal, as much of what they throw at students is strictly meant to rattle them. Masochists. But it’s the end. Tomorrow morning at just past 10:30 AM, she will receive her degree and be free from the shackles (sorry, we saw A Christmas Carol last night at the Clarence Brown Theatre), of school. I’m so proud of her journey to get here. She has much more patients in dealing with the bureocratic BS that she has had to deal with than I would ever have. I’ve never known M when she wasn’t a student. I’m sure life will be different. I’m very proud of her accomplishment.

As for the end of other things, of course, 2012 has had all kinds of endings. Many famous and not so famous people have died. Although it was in Dec 11, it’s been a year since one of my heroes, Christopher Hitchens died. It has been the end of a bitter election that has divided us even more as a country (I’m sure Hitchens would have been a riot to listen to throughout this campaign). A bright spot was the way Gov Chris Christie bonded with Pres Obama during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. It was the end of war in Iraq (or at least as far as we are concerned). It will be the end of the Clinton’s in politics… oh no, I forgot about the 2016 election! It was the end of President Lincoln. Wait, wrong again, that was just a movie as real as it seemed. It was sorta the end of Twinkies! The end of powerful unions, like them or not (I do). It was the end of La Costa/31 Bistro where M and I had our first date. Now taken over by a crunchy granola outdoor store. It was the end of icons like, Eastman Kodak, Hostess, American Sukuki, Saab, Ritz Camera… at least there were fewer bankruptcies this year than the last few years.

It was the end of school of my younger (next year I will have an extra one so T won’t be the youngest anymore) niece’s school. Now she enters the workforce…not to say she hasn’t worked her butt off the last few years. She has and I’m very proud. It was the end of renting for my older niece and her husband and they bought a home.

All this makes me realize that endings aren’t always bad. Sure, the loss of life, property, relationships, and businesses can be painful and depressing. But many endings like the end of school, the end of journeys, the end of less fortunate situations, turns out to be happy occasions. I’m happy about most of the endings this year. 2013… well who knows where we will all be in life in 12 months. We have a wedding to plan which is well on it’s way. We have big life decisions to ponder. And where we will be physically and emotionally and whether we will be hanging off the fiscal cliff or at war with some known or unknown enemy, none of us know. I know it’s been a good year for me. And I’m looking forward to another one in 2013.

My best,
E

Halloween 2013

October 31, 2012 | Filed under Wedding

I love Halloween… no secret there and so does M. This year, like last, we attended Knoxville’s Frightfest. Here’s our costumes: His & Hers Jokers!

Debate Party

October 3, 2012 | Filed under Wedding

Having a little debate-watching party at home tonight with some fellow liberal-minded folks! WHOAH! Just 34 more days until we get to re-elect our president! Foreword!

One year and counting!

September 19, 2012 | Filed under Wedding

So the countdown is really on! One year. 365 Days! And oh boy do i hope the weather is as nice as it is in Knoxville today!

We had the good fortune to go see Elton John in Johnson City, TN this weekend. This was M’s 2nd show and my 25th Elton John show! He was in top form!

Vendors…

July 2, 2012 | Filed under Wedding

Selecting vendors has been great fun for us! Getting to see and taste the creativity of some of talented people is just amazing. We will try to add new vendors to the menu at the left as we select them. This week, we are happy to announce we are going to be able to work with the best event planners in Tennessee to make the Knoxville Zoo look extraordinary! Whimsical Gatherings has worked with our seed of a vision to create some stunning concepts for the venue setting. We are SO excited to continue to work through the design and see the final product!
~EM

Another Vendor…check!

June 27, 2012 | Filed under Engagement Eric Mandee The Dogs Wedding

We’re excited to find a photographer!
I think we’ve found our wedding photographer! We’re just waiting to hear back about some travel pricing. We’ve interviewed some amazing photographers in this process! We’ve just had a hard time balancing price vs. our budget. I think we’ve found the perfect blend and we’re excited to work with her.

On another note, tonight is ‘dog whisperer’ night. I hope to be able to report tomorrow that we have been given the skills to deal with our out-of-control situation. I’ve worked with the spouse of the behaviorist that is coming and it’s like watching David Copperfield work so we have high hopes that, with a lot of work, we can manage this situation. More tomorrow…

UPDATE: It’s Done! We have our wedding photographer. Adrienne Lampe will be shooting both our ceremony in Savannah and our Party with the Newlyweds in Knoxville.

Let the sampling begin…

February 22, 2012 | Filed under Eric Food Wedding

Last night, we had our very first taste (ahem) of a caterer’s food for our wedding… yeah, we are probably planning this a little early. Yum! A local caterer, Abner’s Attic, was hosting an open house. They certainly had some yummy food, but what most excited us was owner Rex told us he hated making the same thing twice and would really like to work with us on making our menu completely custom… THAT’S what we wanted to hear. Mandee and I are both foodies and we love to craft dishes as much as we like to eat them. So working together with someone to develop a menu really excited us.
~E

Eric & Mandee – Engagement, Wedding

Our Story – Engagement, Wedding, Life, and Love